Design thinking is a user-centered design process, and the empathy that comes from observing users enables design thinkers to uncover deep and meaningful needs.
Empathy, by definition, is the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts or attitudes of another. Empathy gaining is often described as 'needfinding' in that you are discovering people's explicit and implicit needs so that you can meet those needs through design.
A need is a physical, psychological or cultural requirement of an individual or group that is missing or not met through existing solutions. A designer 'needfinds' or works to understand a user's experience by learning about their lives. Empathy gaining and needfinding may be broken down into three discrete methods:
Immerse
Engage
Observe
The goal of the empathy mode is to discover gaps in between what people do and what people say they do. These gaps are the design opportunities.
WHY do we teach it?
To uncover needs that people have which they may or may not be aware of
To guide our innovation efforts
To identify someone to design for
To discover the emotions that guide behaviors
The goal of the empathy mode is the following:
Stories about people, their actions and their motivations
Artifacts (photos, drawings, quotes) that capture people, the environment, maps of movement through a space, etc.
Deep insights revealed through these stories and artifacts
WHAT is it?
Design thinking is a user-centered design process, and the empathy that comes from observing users enables design thinkers to uncover deep and meaningful needs.
Empathy, by definition, is the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts or attitudes of another. Empathy gaining is often described as 'needfinding' in that you are discovering people's explicit and implicit needs so that you can meet those needs through design.
A need is a physical, psychological or cultural requirement of an individual or group that is missing or not met through existing solutions. A designer 'needfinds' or works to understand a user's experience by learning about their lives. Empathy gaining and needfinding may be broken down into three discrete methods:
The goal of the empathy mode is to discover gaps in between what people do and what people say they do. These gaps are the design opportunities.
WHY do we teach it?
- To uncover needs that people have which they may or may not be aware of
- To guide our innovation efforts
- To identify someone to design for
- To discover the emotions that guide behaviors
The goal of the empathy mode is the following: